Montage Tutorial

[Tom V]

In the pre-Photoshop/Elements Forum days (last week), I made a tutorial about compositing multiple subjects (my kid) into one image.

http://www.s2pro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1842

The above linked thread belongs here and not there, to attract the proper audience.:rolleyes:

[sandman]

Tom
I did this last year when i first had elements 2, it was for a flyer for my local council. would you care to cast one of your four expert eyes over it and give me an honest opinion.

Brian

[Andre]

How about a non-expert opinion?

It looks very good. Only suggestion I could make is that the castle shouldn't be on an angle.

[Swampy]

I agree with Andre... Did a good job with the exception of the castle being skewed to the side. Nice Job Brian.

[Tom V]

Brian,

It is very good, especially considering that you were new to Elements 2. My first impression is that it is perfect, but since you asked for my critical eye, I did a thorough eyeball job on it.

The medway text in the center is great. I have no idea what medway is.

I agree with the others about the crooked castle. Generally, I like to keep all things level, or if tipping is involved, put 5° -15° rotation on elements. Having just one element tilted makes it still out like a sore thumb.

After putting my 4-eye stare on it for a while, I found a couple little things I would fix, given the time and financial compensation. I would straighten out the map - it has a slight angle to it. Everything has good blended edges except the boat scene - I can see the hard left and right image edges. The bottom blend edge on the left building has a circular edge that is unlike the other edges - should it be squared off and softer? I would also move the lower left hikers up a bit so as not to crop off their feet. I would also solidify some of the elements' main subjects. I would not allow the map to show through the fisherman's body, etc. This would probably add a little more color saturation to the overlays. Could the sky over the boats be bluer? My eyes keep looking at the large green foilage mass near the center - it really doesn't do much for the overall image - could it be faded out?

Maybe some of these things can't be done in Elements - I don't know.

Thanks for posting your image, and thanks for asking my opinion.

[SSonnentag]

Tom, your tutorial thread has been moved and I took the liberty to update your link to its new location. :)

Thanks. If you find any other threads that should be moved let me know.

[sandman]

Thanks You gents, you're all right the castle should be square. This was used back in the spring for an ad, but something at the back of my minds been nagging me about it .I've been asked to produce another and would like to improve as i go.
Tom this has about 16 layers so it's no problem to change any thing ,and as an exercise i will . Your dead right about the map ,did,nt notice it was out of square, the edges of the mariner are also wrong , i'll round them off, i'm not sure how to fade the bush ,but retain the opacity in the rest of the fishing scene. The man i could cut from the original and re paste as a seperate layer over the top of his own image .
I'm going to play around this weekend and i'll post the improved(i hope)version later.

The towns of Chatham, Gillingham,Rochester, and Strood, are known collectively as the Medway Towns, (the river Medway winds its way though them), so the local council is Medway council. and the whole lot as one city. Medway.
All the scenes can be found within' a ten minute drive from the town center. and the map is a blow up of the surrounding village's
Many thanks for all your views.

Brian

[sandman]

Rotated the map by 2 degrees.
Straightened the castle.
Erased the edges of the boat layer.
Raised the map to show childrens feet.
Upped the opacity on the fishermans layer to hide the background.
Colour picked the bush in '' replace colour '' and lightened it.
Upped the contrast in same layer so that the lake showed beneath the bush.
Saved as Photoshop file to retain the layers.
Flattened image.
Cropped image to hide the rotation errors.
Saved as Jpeg.
Saved for web.
Finished.

Thank you for all your views and help

Brian.

[Andre]

Looks great, Sand man.
Can I make one suggestion? This appeared on the new version because of the new cropping.
You should crop out the partial place-name at the bottom right (Queen something?) - since we can't read it at all, it kind of looks out of place.
Otherwise looks great.

[sandman]

Andre
As this is never going to be shown again , i just corrected what i had to as an exercise ,to prove to myself i could do it. The next one intended for the autumn, will be different and i hope a lot better , due to all the help i've had from you lot.
I had to crop because of the rotation, so there will be a lot of mistakes now.(the boats are not centered for example).

Thanks again
Brian

In case it nags at you it's Queens Down Warren, a local beauty spot and a haven for rabbits ,(hence the warren in the old name)

[RacerX]

Nice work, Brian. I feel like I should go to where ever in the hell
"medway" is. :) I hoping to get to the same level using PS7, as yourself. Thanks again for the rework pic.

Rick

[Wichita Wayne]

You Normans always are driving us Irish crazy with all your rabbits.

LOL, couldn't resist. I am a McDermot on my mothers side and as I recall one of my ancestors invited a Norman to marry his Irish daughter as long as he brought a whole legion of groomsmen to the wedding. He not only brought a whole legion of groomsmen but he also brought lots of rabbits. Not even Finn McCool could get rid of all those rabbits.

Oh, yes! Sandman, nice job on the add. Really professional looking.

[rsvpgrfx]

tom

those four eyes make my 2 eyes hurt

[sandman]

Wayne
I'm of irish decent on both sides, my great grandparents on my mothers side were pure county cork, my grandmother on my fathers side was from county clare. most of my cousins are liverpool/irish, and i was baptised a roman/catholic.
Not much norman there, you've proberbly got more in you (judging by your surname).
As for rabbits , one of the only animals i think is better in a pot than out.

Thanks Rick, i said earlier Medway's my home town. A seaport on the north kent coast about 30 miles south east from London.

And thats right where i'm going now (more work).

Brian

[Wichita Wayne]

The other side of my family is Norman. In fact I am decended all the way back to the Edward I, II, & III through one of the Dukes of Salsbury. Edward III had 12 kids and 9 reached adulthood and had children so half of the US is probably related in some way to him. The family name was Moon and they were among the Quakers that came to the US with William Penn. A few year back when the movie Braveheart came out I told my kids that they were related to one of the characters in the movie. They were not happy to hear about Grandpa Longshanks.

After I posted that I got to thinking that you were probably Irish and I had stuck my foot in my mouth, but what the heck it is all in fun and I spend a good part of the day with my foot in my mouth anyway.

[sandman]

Wayne
You've gone back a hell of a long way, Edward 1 (longshanks)was reputed to 6' 2'', massive back then.
you've given me an idea now ,move on over to ''anything goes''.

Brian

P.S feet in mouths are my forte.

[Tom V]

Originally posted by rsvpgrfx
tom

those four eyes make my 2 eyes hurt

Lightweight.

[Swampy]

Besides, them eyes are (C)! Ok Tom. Go for two noses now too. I think the 4 eyes would blend nicely into two side by side noses and into the mouth.

Give the frame a smooth flow to it all.

[RacerX]

Well Brian, (sandman) If I ever get over to your area, Medway that is, I'll look you up. Probably will even request for a map and driving directions. (Not the one you posted here) I'm sure the roads over there are not like here. Us Californians need a freeway close by in order for us not to get lost.
It's kinda like our compass here. :)

Rick